about 30 years ago somebody showed me something that was very amazing. this was shown to me on graphite that was not at all anything special.

he had me hold the rod as if I was actually fishing it, minus a reel. he then put the tip of the rod up to his neck where his throat was. he put a small bend to the tip, then says "can you feel that?" I could feel his vocal cords through the blank into my hand. I was blown away by the sensitivity of the graphite rod. I believe I paid $69 for that rod.

the graphite rods these days are very superior to the graphite of 30 years ago.

every rod on a rod rack will detect vocal chord vibrations, if it can do that it will detect a steelhead bite.

it cracks me up these days cause our grandfathers had heavy stiff fiberglass rods and caught many steelhead with out dropping even $50 on a rod. somewhere along the line steelhead fishers has fallen into buying elite brands to feel as though that's the secret. i'd suggest a guy try fishing with a heavy metal ferruled fiberglass rod for an entire day. then fish his average rod of today he will be truly amazed!